A die cutter, either flat or rotary, may cut work pieces such as, for example, sheets of boards on a platform (e.g., a drum or a flatbed) according to certain pre-determined shapes. The work pieces can be sheets of boards made of corrugated paper, plastic, or other materials. For example, a rotary die cutter may include a first rotatable cylinder on which cutting blades are installed, and a second rotatable cylinder to provide a support platform to support the board that is being cut. The first cylinder is commonly referred to as a die cylinder and the second cylinder is commonly referred to as an anvil cylinder, wherein the die cylinder and the anvil cylinder may be arranged such that the die cylinder is positioned above or below the anvil cylinder. A spatial gap may exist between a lowest contour line of the die cylinder and a highest contour line of the anvil cylinder. One or more motors through gears may drive the die cylinder and anvil cylinder to rotate and to enable a sheet of board to feed through the gap between the die cylinder and the anvil cylinder in response to the rotational motion and the frictional force on the surface of the anvil cylinder. The blades installed on the die cylinder may be programmed to cut the board into pre-determined shapes via the rotational motion of the die cylinder.
Both the die cylinder and the anvil cylinder may be made from hard materials such as steel. During a cutting process, the blades installed on the die cylinder need to cut through the board. To prevent the blades from hitting the hard surface of the anvil cylinder, causing damage to the blades, and to protect the surface of the anvil cylinder from scratches, anvil covers may be mounted on the anvil cylinder to provide a buffer layer between the blade tips and the anvil cylinder. In operation, the blades may make contact with and cut into the soft anvil covers, rather than contacting the hard surface of the anvil cylinder.